The weekend and Sunday news programs were full of comments on the assassination attempt of Paul Pelosi. Other than a few comments of sympathy, the silence from the far right is deafening, the ridicule from the extremists expected and for the media, and for a lot of politicians, including many Democrats, its tongue-clicking, head shaking business as usual.
Democrats have the moral high ground here, and Republican attempts at deflection, like that which came from RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, predictable. The spin she put on it on Fox News, where she could safely spout off her nonsense and not have to ask questions or be redirected back to the truth, was dizzying. She's a Mormon, a graduate of Brigham Young University and a Romney, and her bald-faced lies discredit her faith, her alma-mater and her family. That's not surprising, since she was one of the first, most shrill voices in the fraudulent claims of voter fraud in 2020. But her attempt to turn this back and deflect blame, calling the attacker a random crazy person and then making comments about the crime rate somehow being involved should be called out.
Democrats universally and immediately condemned the shooting of Steve Scalise, and backed that up with more than just thoughts and prayers. And his assailant was motivated by the rhetoric of the extreme right, not by that of the left, or Democrats or progressives. He was a right wing extremist, something that McDaniel failed to include in her self-serving, backhanded defense of the attack on Paul Pelosi. The President was one of the first, and most strident voices when there was a threat against Justice Kavanaugh. The first two voices condemning the violence against Lee Zeldin were Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul and President Biden. But Zeldin hasn't been demonized for decades, and his attacker, a veteran, who threatened him with a sharp key chain, was drunk, and had no political connections to anyone on the left. There's some question as to whether he was Republican, since he had been admitted to the rally. Both of those comparisons do not stack up to the intentions of the man who attacked Mr. Pelosi.
Making the case that this attack was directly connected to the right's demonizing of Nancy Pelosi, for as long as she has been Speaker is as easy as looking at the facts. Mika Brzezinkski on this morning's Morning Joe broadcast, did an outstanding job of laying out the facts, tying this in with the January 6th Trump Insurrection and pointing out that this guy was a radicalized right wing extremist, not just some random crazy, and that is actions are directly motivated by what the Trump Insurrection attempted to pull off on January 6th, 2021, which was to stop, at all costs, the certification of a legitimate election.
This is NOT Protected Free Speech
We need a justice system that is going to make it clear that threats against politicians is not protected free speech and will not be tolerated. The tongue-clicking and head shaking and appearances on cable news to condemn this action is all just words. It has no purpose and achieves no result. It applies no real accountability and the danger to all members of Congress, as well as other elected officials, continues unabated.
Making or inciting threats is against the law. If news media personalities and the networks that pay their salaries are held accountable for allowing this kind of remark to be made and publicized on their outlets, they should be charged and brought to trial for being an accomplice. Politicians who obviously encourage this should be removed from office and not permitted to run again. Character assassination is clear evidence that the individual spouting the threats is not mentally or emotionally capable of handling public office. Wishing opponents harm or death is as unAmerican and unpatriotic as it gets.
Threats against members of Congress, according to MSNBC's Morning Joe, have more than doubled since the first year of the Trump presidency. It doesn't take an astrophysicist or a psychotherapist to figure out where it's coming from. Or does it? All of the evidence is on video or recorded, and it doesn't take long, sifting through sites like War Room or Breitbart to see them proverbially yelling "fire" in what is a very crowded theater.
Wasn't it Justice Alito who said that's not protected free speech?
This is NOT the Rhetoric of the Left, it IS the Rhetoric of the Extreme Right
Even the most liberal members of the House of Representatives, the "Squad" as they are known, do not use the threatening, radicalized rhetoric that is thrown around by the extremists on the right like playground bullies. They can be shrill, critical, loud, and sometimes even obnoxious with those whom they disagree. But they aren't bullies, they don't make personal threats and they don't rally and radicalize their followers to take aggressive action beyond the ballot box. There's enough recorded evidence of the extremists on the right inciting their supporters to violence against the left to make just about any kind of legal charge that can be made in this domain. And they belong to a party claiming that crime is on the increase and it's the Democrats fault.
There is also no comparison between these two groups at the far extreme of Congressional representation when it comes to conduct and integrity. Outright lying and deliberately misleading is evidence of a complete lack of integrity, but it is also not protected free speech and the law does make it possible to hold liars accountable for what they say. Doesn't the Democratic party have enough resources to file lawsuits on behalf of constituents in congressional districts whose representatives have misled them by deliberately not telling the truth?
I'm a passionate advocate of free speech and expression, and I believe that even nut jobs can say what's on their mind and put it out there in the ideological forum that is the United States of America. But the boundary line between free, responsible speech, and destructive bullying needs to be clear. What has been done to Nancy Pelosi, to Joe Biden, and to the opponents of some extreme radicals running on the GOP ticket is unconstitutional and legally open to prosecution. The penalty for conviction should be removal from office and ineligibility to run for public office.
The Justice Department Has All the Evidence It Needs
We need to stop the head shaking and tongue clicking and get this done. January 6th was an incited insurrection, the evidence is clear who planned, incited and intended to use it to subvert the constitutional provision of the peaceful transfer of power. The longer it takes to indict and prosecute the perpetrators, the greater the risk of disruption and danger to the lives of members of Congress and their families.
The same principle applies to the prosecution of Paul Pelosi's attacker. There's a trail of accountability in that case as well and it needs to be followed to the prosecution of everyone responsible for incendiary, threatening, bullying rhetoric that incited violence against the Speaker.
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